Jack Forbes

America Before the United States

There was an America
before there was a United States
and we remember it.

We remember that it was

a land of pure, clear streams
of fresh, clean air

and landscapes of

exquisite beauty

and awesome reach.

We remember that

there was an America

before there was a Spanish Empire
before Hispanic Imperialism
devastated our peoples

and tore open Mother Earth

for gold.

We remember that

there was an America
before any European empires arrived,
a land stretching from
Arctic to Antarctic

from Atlantic to Pacific
without racism

without religious bigotry,
without overpopulation
and the destruction

of the natural world.

The Middle Continent

of the world,

this America,

existing long before
there was a United States
long before

a Dominion of Canada

long before
a Columbia.

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